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Second-Hand Store Inspiration

January 30, 2016

OK, I should probably work on my blog post titles (at least you might think so if you’re an SEO (search engine optimization) purist, but pfft! I’m going with this one for this post.

Wife and I were at a local second-hand store today (Goodwill, if you’re curious). She was looking at clothes and I was looking at books. I did get a first edition copy of Sue Grafton’s “B Is For Burglar”. Somebody recently said (hi, Ryan H!) that the “A” books are going for a lot so I thought it would be worth a roll of the dice to see if the first edition “B” book was also in that category.

Unfortunately, her publisher apparently figured out that people liked her “A” book pretty well and decided to print a lot more copies for the first edition of the “B” book. As a result, you can pick up a copy of the first edition of the “B” book for about $5 on Amazon Oh, well… I guess I’ll wait for “Z Is For Zero” or whatever she calls it (but according to Wikipedia, that’s going to be the title).

On the outside chance that she may actually read this blog, I wish you the best, Ms. Grafton, and I will read your “B” book. Now that I own a copy… 🙂 I’m also very happy that you’ve made it almost all the way through the alphabet and are still going strong. You’re amazing!

But I’m getting off-track again.

As I was going through the books at Goodwill (for the record, I also bought a Mitch Albom book that I don’t currently have; I’ve been “hooked” on his books since “Tuesdays With Morrie” — and I also bought a book about the logic of Sudoku because quickly solving Sudoku puzzles is going to be my superpower some day!), a thought suddenly hit me.

I’m making things way too hard for myself. There’s a much simpler way that I think will add even more value to what I’m doing.

Simplifying Things

So instead of mapping out an entire series, then creating blog posts as I create the “premium content”, I’m going to go ahead and create my outline but will create short “here’s how to do this” type posts. I think that will help people more because (I think) lots of people go online to find out how to do some little task right now. They don’t want to wade through a book (literally!) to figure something out.

In addition, this will help me in a few ways:

I can write faster blog posts. Using my writing system, I can knock out a 1,000 word blog post pretty quickly.

Since I’d probably be diagnosed with ADHD if I were a kid (as some say I still am), it’s better if I work on something short, then move on to some other short task. Or three. This suits my personality style a lot better.

I can still put the materials into premium content if I want.

I can write about other stuff that comes to mind that may not be part of a give piece of eventual premium content.

It will allow me to take advantage of shorter blocks of time.

It will help ensure that I can post more often to this blog, which I hope will be a help and inspiration to others.

So I’m going to do it and we’ll see what happens.

Oh, I’m all about simple. Here are a few examples of what I mean by “simple”:

This website has an ugly theme at the moment. Why? Because it came with WordPress and by using it, I don’t have to look around for another one. Instead, If I see a different one that I like, I’ll simply figure out which theme they are using and start using it here.

My new posting system. I can get an idea, write, then figure out where it’ll fit in my overall premium content strategy (if it fits at all; if it doesn’t, that’s OK as long as it adds value). Or if I’m stuck for ideas, I can simply go to my master outlines, choose a topic that looks good, and go with it.

God, The Universe, Or Coffee?

On the other site (oh, forgot to tell you where it is; it’s The Business Protector — more on that some other time. Maybe…), I’m going to write that I got feedback that caused me to change my mind about how I’m going to do stuff. Except you get to know about what I really mean by “feedback”.

As I was going through the books (and putting back all the good ones that Wife thought were a bit too far “out there”), it’s as if I suddenly had a revelation. I want to say that the title of a particular book put the idea in my head, but after I wrote down the idea in Google Keep on my phone (a must-have app for capturing these ideas), I went back over the shelf I was looking at to see which book triggered the idea.

None of them seem to have done it.

So who gets the credit for that great “feedback”? Or the blame, whichever you want to call it?

God. Guess he has to get the credit since he certainly gets blamed for a lot of stuff that isn’t his fault!

The Universe. If you don’t believe in a traditional god but acknowledge that there’s a higher power, I’m OK with that and you can say the universe did it.

Goodwill coffee. It’s free. It’s not my favorite but I still get a cup every time I go. I almost always regret it. But maybe not this time.

Have a great day, night, or whatever you’re currently experiencing. More soon.

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